Location: Against fed law to use my religion W.There's no reason to suppress a viewpoint unless it's true,cause a false viewpoint can easily be combated w/facts and logic,while truth cannot be combated except by lies which are vulnerable to refutation.

Posts: 6,639

Israelis withdraw from heart of Bethlehem to suburbs of Bethlehem for Christmas

http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/world/A6996/http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/WAB...lehemxmas.html
[quote]Israel Withdraws Troops From Heart of Bethlehem As City Celebrates Subdued Christmas
(Bethlehem, West Bank-AP, December 24, 2002) — The Israeli army pulled troops back to the outskirts of Bethlehem on Tuesday, maintaining a low profile in the biblical city to allow pilgrims to celebrate the Christmas holiday.
But in the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers fired a tank shell at Palestinians between the Karni and Erez crossings with Israel, killing one young man and wounding three others, Palestinian hospital officials said. Further information was not immediately available and the army said it was checking the report.

The incident raised tensions as Christians prepared for the Christmas holiday in Israeli-occupied Bethlehem. The city known as the traditional birthplace of Jesus was cheerless and subdued - the municipality refused to put a Christmas tree in Manger Square across from the Church of the Nativity to protest the Israeli troop presence.

There were no glistening lights, no bells, no holly - and few, if any, tourists.

Quote:

There was no visible Israeli military presence either - soldiers manning the entrances to the town checked cars going in, but armored vehicles and uniformed soldiers stayed outside.

This year marks the first Christmas since 1994 that Bethlehem has been under Israeli occupation during the holiday, and Palestinian Christians - who make up nearly half the city's 27,000 population - said they could not recall a worse Christmas.

"The people of Bethlehem do not have the spirit of celebrating Christmas. There is no joy in people's hearts," said Raed Zarrouk, 26. "I see no decorations, no fireworks and no tourists."

Protesting the takeover, town leaders canceled all Christmas festivities except religious observances. The highlight is Midnight Mass at St. Catherine's Church next to the Church of the Nativity, the fortress-like 4th-century church built over the grottos where tradition holds Jesus was born.

As in years past, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah was on hand to deliver the sermon at Midnight Mass. Sabbah, the highest-ranking Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, led a procession from Jerusalem. He was greeted by Palestinian Boy Scouts carrying — instead of the traditional drums and bagpipes — Palestinian flags and pictures of Yasser Arafat.

Christmas in Bethlehem, which once attracted tens of thousands of pilgrims and Palestinians, has been subdued for the past two years because of Palestinian-Israeli violence. But this year marked a new low.

The tall fir tree in Manger Square, usually draped with strings of colorful lights and ornaments, stood bare. The platform built each year for choirs to serenade the holiday-makers in Manger Square was absent.

Only a few tourists braved the tension to visit the town. With the violence crippling Bethlehem's tourism-based economy, many souvenir shops shut down.

Israeli troops kept a tight grip on roadblocks and checkpoints on the outskirts of Bethlehem. But no armored vehicles were visible in Manger Square...

Location: Night sits measuring shadows here, Deep and stark, Where the hills are dark, With evergreen haunts for the hungry deer, So that strangers understand, Winter's claim upon the land – Ellin Anderson

Posts: 11,640

article: But in the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers fired a tank shell at Palestinians between the Karni and Erez crossings with Israel, killing one young man and wounding three others, Palestinian hospital officials said.

Segregration in Israel is wrong, but, is preferable, from the Jewish point of view --- to the racial destruction of Israel that would occur with integration.

The same could have been said about segregation in America. Segregation is preferable over integration, but complete national separation is the only sane course. Israel will have to complete her ethnic cleansing or face the nightmare of living with diversity.